The present invention relates to sighting devices for firearms, and more particularly, a rear sight located at a firing pin of a firearm.
Firearms, including handguns, traditionally employ at least one front sight located above the barrel, on the main body. A rear sight is used to bracket the front sight, while ensuring the sights are aligned within the same plane. Conventional handgun sighting practice stresses that the shooter focus on the front sight, located several millimeters above the barrel axis, as shown in FIG. 1. Several problems arise due to such sighting systems, including: the creation of ligature points along the handgun sighting surfaces; increased weight due to such sighting systems; and decreased situational awareness due to optical focus on the front sight.
Sighting devices have been known to use tritium light sources and fiber optic segments. Such devices are mounted on the main body of the weapon, and as such suffer from “parallax error” due to the sight being offset from the aim line of the barrel. In addition, such devices add ligature surfaces and weight to the weapon.
Other devices utilize bore sighting solutions, allowing laser sighting down the barrel of a weapon. However, such devices are not capable of being used during actual firing of the weapon.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,905,043 is directed towards a laser aiming system for firearms. However, special ammunition is required during use as well as the incorporation of reflective mirrors and prisms. Such structures would additionally add weight to the system and cause the shooter to focus on a point which is located further than the front sight.
Accordingly, it is desirable to employ a system which: allows a user to maintain a wide field of vision during target acquisition thereby increasing situational awareness; decreases excess weight to the weapon; and limits the number of external ligature surfaces. Therefore, a need arises for a sighting system addressing the aforementioned problems.